{
"data": {
"id": 146709,
"accession_number": "1972.158",
"share_license_status": "CC0",
"tombstone": "Pair of Guardian Kings (Ni\u014d), 1200s. Japan, Kamakura period (1185\u20131333). Chestnut and cypress wood; overall: 167.9 cm (66 1/8 in.). The Cleveland Museum of Art, Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund, 1972.158",
"current_location": null,
"title": "Pair of Guardian Kings (Ni\u014d)",
"creation_date": "1200s",
"creation_date_earliest": 1200,
"creation_date_latest": 1299,
"artists_tags": [],
"culture": [
"Japan, Kamakura period (1185\u20131333)"
],
"technique": "Chestnut and cypress wood",
"support_materials": [],
"department": "Japanese Art",
"collection": "Japanese Art",
"type": "Sculpture",
"measurements": "Overall: 167.9 cm (66 1/8 in.)",
"dimensions": {
"overall": {
"height": 1.679,
"height_inch": 66,
"height_inch_fraction": 0.125
}
},
"state_of_the_work": null,
"edition_of_the_work": null,
"copyright": null,
"inscriptions": [],
"exhibitions": {
"current": [
{
"id": 301752,
"title": "Year in Review: 1972",
"description": "Year in Review: 1972. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (February 27-March 18, 1973).",
"opening_date": "1973-02-27T05:00:00"
},
{
"id": 302145,
"title": "Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture",
"description": "Traditions and Revisions: Themes from the History of Sculpture. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 24-November 16, 1975).",
"opening_date": "1975-09-24T04:00:00"
},
{
"id": 295705,
"title": "Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation - July 2017-January 2018",
"description": "Japanese Gallery 235 Rotation - July 2017-January 2018. The Cleveland Museum of Art (organizer) (July 15, 2017-January 2, 2018).",
"opening_date": "2017-07-15T04:00:00"
}
],
"legacy": []
},
"provenance": [
{
"description": "Buddhist temple in Shiga Prefecture, Japan",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": [],
"date": null,
"sortorder": 1
},
{
"description": "(Yanagi Fine Art Shop, Kyoto, Japan, sold to the Cleveland Museum of Art)",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "?\u20131972",
"sortorder": 2
},
{
"description": "The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH",
"citations": [],
"footnotes": null,
"date": "1972\u2013",
"sortorder": 3
}
],
"find_spot": null,
"related_works": [],
"former_accession_numbers": [],
"did_you_know": "This is one of a pair of guardian kings, or Nio. Their fierce expressions and postures indicate their protective function.",
"early_education_description": null,
"artlens_description": null,
"description": "These wrathful protectors of Buddhism would have once stood within the sides of the main entrance gate to a temple. One has an open mouth that intones the sound ah, and symbolizes the beginning, or life.One has a closed mouth that intones the sound un, and symbolizes the end, or death.",
"external_resources": {
"wikidata": [
"https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q60757132"
],
"internet_archive": [
"https://archive.org/details/clevelandart-1972.158-pair-of-guardian-kin"
]
},
"citations": [
{
"citation": "Lee, Sherman E. \u201cThe Year in Review for 1972.\u201d The Bulletin of the Cleveland Museum of Art, vol. 60, no. 3, 1973, pp. 63\u2013115.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 98, no. 290; Mentioned: p. 114",
"url": "https://www.jstor.org/stable/25093732"
},
{
"citation": "Nippon no bijutsu (November 1972), no. 78.",
"page_number": "pp. 105, 106, 111",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Sh\u014dichi Uehara. \"Wooden Statues of Vajrap\u0101ni.\" Kobijutsu \u53e4\u7f8e\u8853 (December 1972), no. 39, pp. 111\u2013113\u000f.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: plates pp. 105, 106",
"url": ""
},
{
"citation": "Zenzo Shimizu. \"Japanese Sculptures in America and Canada,\" Ars Buddhica \u4f5b\u6559\u85dd\u8853, no. 126 (September 1979), part I, pp. 67-88.",
"page_number": "Mentioned and Reproduced: p. 70, fig. 13, and p. 71, fig. 14",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Roukes, Nicholas. Masters of Wood Sculpture. New York: Watson-Guptill Publishers, 1980.",
"page_number": "Reproduced: p. 14",
"url": null
},
{
"citation": "Liebson, Milt. Direct Wood Sculpture: Techniques, Innovation, Creativity. Atglen, PA: Schiffer Pub, 2001.",
"page_number": "p. 14",
"url": ""
}
],
"url": "https://clevelandart.org/art/1972.158",
"images": {
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"creditline": "Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund",
"image_credit": null,
"sketchfab_id": "2b0872d545f943e5aa1fcd23568cc405",
"sketchfab_url": "https://sketchfab.com/models/2b0872d545f943e5aa1fcd23568cc405",
"gallery_donor_text": null,
"athena_id": 146709,
"creators": [],
"legal_status": "accessioned",
"accession_date": "1972-12-05T00:00:00",
"sortable_date": 1200,
"date_added_to_oa": null,
"date_text": "1200s",
"collapse_artists": false,
"on_loan": false,
"recently_acquired": false,
"record_type": "cover",
"conservation_statement": null,
"has_conservation_images": false,
"cover_accession_number": null,
"is_nazi_era_provenance": false,
"impression": null,
"alternate_titles": [],
"is_highlight": false,
"updated_at": "2026-09-23 15:03:08.488000"
}
}